


falls the shadow

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: 3 Sentence Fiction, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Memory Magic, Podfic Welcome, cubed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 17:44:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19909687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: He has the perfect life; she could hardly expect better.If their world had ended with a bang, they would have noticed, and perhaps they could have kept their world from ending.They live lives of paralyzed force, gesture without motion, driven by memories that have shape without form and hearts that have shade without color, because their world ended with a whimper, unobserved.





	falls the shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "[This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.](https://allpoetry.com/The-Hollow-Men)"

Adrien has the perfect life: his mother's gentle loving hugs, his father's steady guiding hand, the attention of any girl he meets and the envy (and/or attention) of all the boys; he needs nothing he lacks, and he gets anything he wants—within reason; it is not _reasonable_ to recklessly endanger himself by leaving the mansion's walls alone, running down empty streets and climbing to rooftops and searching searching _searching_ for red and black and blue—

Marinette could hardly expect better: her grandparents love her, she _knows_ they do, and it must be her fault her grandfather ignores her and her fault her nonna leaves—who else could be to blame, and who else would want to take her in, and who would find it anything but a burden lifted if one day she breaks herself falling from a rooftop or is broken by a car she didn't hear, while she's too busy searching searching _searching_ for black and gold and green?—

They collide in the middle of a street south of the cathedral: she babbles apologies— "I'm madly clumsy, I'm so clumsy—"

Something sparks in his memory: "Where are your earrings?" he asks this strange blue-eyed, black-haired girl, who is not masked in red and black, who doesn't even have pierced ears.

Her hands fly to her earlobes, and she's surprised to find them bare: "Where's your ring?" she demands of this strange gold-haired, green-eyed boy, who has no black leather ears nor tail nor armor, who has never worn a ring.

" 'Drop in' won't work," says Adrien, glancing skyward, twisting his fingers together; " 'learning the ropes' won't either—"

"Nice to run into you?" offers Marinette; his grin is painfully familiar. "Where have you _been_ , kitten?"

"Where do I know you from, my lady?" he asks, since he has no answer for her, only the certainty that he should have one, and she, with no better reply, says "Let's find out."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](http://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Take my gingersnaps and go (the layers flattened remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20659094) by [Estirose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose)




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